Brick breaking games have come a long way over the decades but the fundamental bat and ball meets smashy bricks is usually always the core gameplay mechanic. Dungeonoid took this into a dungeon crawling theme a couple of years ago. Whilst fun, its single screen levels and lack of quality of life features to control your ball a bit more than the 80s meant it appealed to retro fans only. Its sequel Dungeonoid 2 Awakening addresses a lot of these issues and feels like a genuine step forward.
Visually, this sequel moves from blocky minimalism to vibrant and detailed pixel art. The transition works really well and helps sell the six unique stages you’ll be tackling. The other huge change here is that a stage is now a long connected tunnel across a town, castle, graveyard or mine. The camera is almost always moving in a compass direction much like a retor shoot-em-up and this keeps you on your toes. Not only are all the bricks moving in the level, but so are enemies and their attacks back at you. Whilst you’ll not be penalised for hitting bricks or enemies with your bat, getting caught in enemy fire usually results in a curse to slow you down or confusion which reverses your controls. You do have three hearts for when the ball drops off the screen and again the moving levels play a huge part here. In one level you are dropping down a mine to the bricks come from behind you for example. This means you might find surprises as you go for a move that suddenly isn’t viable. Most things are very recoverable though but it cannot be understated how much energy the moving levels bring to the game.
Dungeonoid 2 Awakening is also a game that runs against the clock. Each level is timed and if you don’t complete it before the clock strikes zero its game over – try again. Whilst about 70% of a level is camera pan dependant, you’ll reach doors, traps, sub bosses and end bosses that require defeating with your ball skills in order to move on. This is where your skill shines brightest and hitting the ball properly pays off. You can also use mana to trigger character specific special moves such as fire rain to clear the screen too. There are four characters with different special moves, ball speed and base ball damage but they handle very similarly. You can also buy powerups in a shop to increase ball damage, replenish health and add 20 seconds to your timer but I found the shop often quite useless because the game dishes out powerups from blocks like Oprah memes. Sometimes so many are raining down on you, you aren’t sure what you’ve collected and so Dungeonoid 2 often becomes quite easy as a result.
I will give a special mention to the boss battles though. They are varied, interesting and well thought out. Each one needed a unique approach to defeat and whilst again, they aren’t too difficult, they were welcome every time. If I were to be negative about anything, its just that its too easy and that the actual ball physics are quite basic. Predictable thankfully, but basic – very little say over getting your ball to do something special. I think Shatter spoiled me a bit.
Retro fans will get a few hours of decent arcade fun out of Dungeonoid 2 Awakening. Its a real step forward as a sequel and its great to see a small indie title really make huge changes and improvements to their franchises between titles. That should be commended. Whilst this title is short, it is enjoyable whilst it lasts.
Review copy provided by publisher.
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